A History of Belgium from the Roman Invasion to the Present Day

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Preface

We possess happily, nowadays, a few standard books, t of great insight and impartiality, which allow us to form a general idea of the development of the Belgian nation without breaking fresh ground. The four volumes of Henri Pirenne's Histoire de Belgique carry us as far as the Peace of Munster, and, among others, such works as Vanderlinen's Belgium^ issued recently by the Oxford University Press, and a treatise on Belgian history by F. Van Kalken (1920) supply a great deal of information on the modern period. To these works the author has been chiefly indebted in writing the present volume. He felt the need for placing the conclusions of modern Belgian historians within reach of British readers, and believed that, though he might not claim any very special qualifications to deal with Belgian history, his knowledge of England would allow him to present his material in the way most interesting to the Englishspeaking public.

Belgium is neither a series of essays nor a systematic text-book. Chronological sequence is preserved, and practically all important events are recorded in their appointed time, but special stress has been laid on some characteristic features of Belgian civilization and national development which l^ are of general interest and bear on the history of Europe as a whole.

The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to his friend, Professor Van der Essen, who has been good enough to revise his work. He is also indebted to Messrs. Van Oest & Co. for allowing him to reproduce some pictures belonging to PAldum Historique de la Belgique^ and to the Phototypie Beige (Ph.B.), St6 anonyme, Etterbeek, Bruxelles, and other holders of copyright for providing him with valuable illustrations.

Contents

PAGE PREFACE . .5

Chapter I The Coal Wood . . . • • ^9

Celts mnd Gennani — Romao conquest — Roads of Roman civilization — First Christianization — Gennanic invasion — Natural obstacle presented by the "Silva Ca^bonaria" — Origins of racial and linguistic division.

Chapter II From Saint Amand To Charlemagne . 37

Frankish capital transferred from Tournai to Paris — Second Christianization — St. Amand — Restoration of the old bishoprics — Romanization of the Franks and germanization of the Walloons — Unification under Charlemagne — ^Aiz-la-Chapelle, centre of the Empire — First period of economic ana intellectual efflorescence.

Chapter III Lotharingia And Flanders . • •47

Partition after Charlemagne — Treaty of Verdun — The frontier of the Scheldt — Struggle of feudal lords against the central power — ^The Normans.

Chapter IV

r£gner long neck . . • 52

Policy of the Lotharingian princes — Influence of the German bishops — Alliance with Flanders against the Emperor — Decadence of the central power — Religious reform of Gerard de Brogue — The Qunisians and the struggle for the investitures — ^The first cruaade.

Chapter V Pagb

BALDWIN THB BEARDED . . • .60

Potiqr of the counts of Flanders — Imperial Flanders — The English alliance — First prospect of unification — Robert the Frisian.

CHAPTER VI THB BSLFItlBS • .66

Origin of the Communes ; trade and industry — Resistance of feudal lords ; Cambrai — Protection given by the counts of Fknders and the dukes of Brabant — Social transformation extending to the country-side — ^The meaning of the belfries.

Chapter VII Thb Golden Spurs . .78

Attraction of Flanders on the rest of the countir — Attempts at maintaining nentralihr between France and England — Thierry and Philippe d* Alsace— Baldwin IX— Ferrand of Portugal — ^BouTines — Increasing French influence — Flemish reaction — "Matines Brugeoises" — Consequences of the Battle of Coartrai— Edward III and Van Artevelde.

Chapter VIII Thb Cathbdral Of Tournai . .88

Religious spirit of Belgium in the Middle Ages — ^The Romanesque churches — Introduction of Gothic ; Period of transition, early Gothic, secondary period, third period — French and Flemish languages durine the Middle Ages — Picard writers in Walloon Flanders — First translations and chronicles in French — Origin of Flemish letters, Willem*s ^ftfMwr/, Van Maerlant

Chapter IX Thb Great Dukbs Of Thb West .102

Decline of the Communes — Policy of the Burgundian dukes: Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, PhUip the Good — ^Territorial unification and political centralization —Philip's external policy ^Charles the Bold — Dream of a new oentnl Empire.

CONTENTS 9

Chapter X Paos

TH£ TOWN HALLS ..... 112

The meaning of Belgium's Gothic Town Halls — Result of a compromise between centralization and local liberties — Decline of the cloth industry — Economic prosperity under the new r^me — Transformation of trade — ^Antwerp succeeds Bruges.

Chapter XI The Adoration Of The Lamb • . .124

Civilization under Burgundian rule — French and Flemish ; bilingualism — Flemish letters : Jean Boendaele, Ruysbroeck — The Brothers of the Common Life — ^Writers in French : Jean Le Bel, Froissart, Chastellain — Development of music : Du&y, Ockeghem, etc. — Life in fifteentncentury Bel^um— The earlv ** Flemish School of Painting " — Its place m the history of Art — The brothers Van Eyck — Origins of the school ; sculpture, illuminating.

Chapter XII Hapsburg And Burgundy .... 140

Reaction after the death of Charles the Bold— The ** Great Privilege" of Mary of Burgundy — Her marriage with Maximilian; its consequences — Conflict between Burgundian and Hapsburgian policies — Philip the Handsome — Margaret of Austria — Accession of Charles to the Empire — Proiects of founding a separate kingdom — Margaret's seccma governorship.

Chapter XVI Separation .182

North ftod Sooth— The Dake of Alba and the Council of Blood — Requesens '—" Spanish Fury" — Pacification of Ghent — ^Don Juan — Policy of Orsnge — Archduke Matthias —The Duke of Anjou— The <* MaloontenU "—Confederation of Anas— Union of Utrecht— ** French Fury*'— The &U of Antwerp.

Chapter XX Poutical Decadence Under Spain . . 230

Situation of the Southern Netherhmds between the United Provinces and France — Projects of Partition — MUnster Treaty — Wars of the Spanish Succession — The Anglo- Batavian Conference— Treaty of Utrecht- The Barrier system.

CONTENTS 1 1

Chapter XXI Paob

THE OSTBND COMPAIfY .... 245

EGonomic RenaisMnoe under the Autrian r^gfane— Efforts to libeimte Belgian timde — War of Anstrian Soocestkm— Charles de Lorraine— Intellectual decadence — Popular

Chapter XXII The Braban9onne Revolution . 254

Joseph II and Philip II — Strength of the Burgundian tradition— Suppression of the Barrier— The "War of the Cauldron" — Ijie emperor's internal reforms — Popular resistance : Van der Noot and Vonck— The *' Etats Belgiques Unis "— *' Statists " and « Vonckisto "—The Reichenbach Conrention — Restoration of the Austrian r^me.

Chapter XXIII Ubbrty, Equauty, Fraternity . . . 268

Jemappes — Excesses of the " Sans Culottes " — Neerwinden — Treaty of The Hague — Policy of the Conrention towards occupied territory — Annexation — The *' War of the Peasants " — Napoleonic rule — The Vienna Tkeaty.

Chapter XXIV Black, Yellow And Red .... 279

The Jomt Kingdom—Causes of fiulure — Belgian grievances — Policy of William I — Reconciliation of Catholics and Liberak— The September days.

Chapter XXV The Scrap Op Paper ..... 289

The Conference of London— Attitude of the Belgian delegates— The "Bases of Separation "—The Luxemburg question — The XVIII Articles^Prince Leopold — Dutch invasion— The XXIV Articles— Their final acceptance- Guaranteed neutrality.

Chapter XXVI Paob

NEUTRAL INDBPKNDSNCB .... 30I

The mesning of neutialitr--The qiiestion of ntdonal defence— Risqoons Tout— The policy of Nmpoleon III —The entrenched camp of Antwerp — British action in 1870 — Leopold II and Emile Banning — li^ge and Namur — ^Military lefonn.

CHAPTER XXVII SCONOmC RKNAISSANCB . . .315

The Bdgian Constitution — Inflaence of neatralitjr on internal politics — ^Struggle between Liberals and Catholics —The '* School War"— The Labour Party-^The Fnmchise — Economic prosperity : agriculture, industry, trade — The opening of tne Scheldt — Tlie search for colonial outlet — Leopold II and the Congo Free Sute— The Belgian Congo.

Chapter XXVIII Intellectual Renaissance . . . 331

Architecture and Sculpture in modern Belgium — The Modem School of painting — A National School of Literature in Frendi wa^ Fleimsh — ^The Flemish movement.

CHAPTER XXDC

CONCLUSION ...... 342

Part played by Belgium in the Great War— German occupation— The '* Making of a Nation "—The " Resistance of a Nation"— Result of the Treaty of Versailles- Future of Belgium.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

J

ALBERT I . . .

CLOTH HALL^ YPRES .

CASTLE OF THE COUNTS, GHENT

CLOTH HALL AND BELFRY, BRUGES

SEAL OF THE TOWN OF DAMME

SEAL OF GUY DE DAMPIERRB

TOURNAI CATHEDRAL .

BRONZE FONT, ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Li£gE

SAINTE GUDULE, BRUSSELS

PHILIP THE GOOD

CHARLES THE BOLD .

TOWN HALL, BRUGES .

THE FIRST ANTWERP EXCHANGE

TOWN HALL, OUDENARDE

THE ADORATION OP' THE LAMB

THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB

PLOURANT

MARY OF BURGUNDY

MAXIMILIAN I .

PHILIP THE FAIR

JUANA OF CASTILE

CHARLES V

MARGARET OF AUSTRIA

X3

FronHspUc$

FACtNO PAOB

78 78

I3S

ARCHDUKE ALBERT ..... 304

PULPIT OF SAINTE GUDULE, BRUSSELS .335

THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS (bREUGHEL) . 229

PROCLAMATION OF THE PEACE OF MUNSTER . .236

JOSEPH II . . •354

VAN DER NOOT .262

SCENE OF THE BRABAN9ONNE REVOLUTION . . 265

LEOPOLD I . . 293

LEOPOLD II . .310

palace of justice, brussels • 33^

"the puddler" (meunier) .... 334

LIST OF MAPS

BELGIUM IN ROMAN TIMES . - 29

DIVISION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE , •47

FEUDAL BELGIUM . • 5^

THE NETHERLANDS UNDER THE RULE OF THE DUKES

OF BURGUNDY . . . I02

BELGIUM UNDER THE RULE OF THE KINGS OF SPAIN 204 BELGIUM UNDER THE RULE OF THE EMPERORS OF

BELGIUM UNDER FRENCH RULE . 268

THE UNITED KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS . 279

MODERN BELGIUM (TREATIES OF 1830*39 AND I919) 289

Introduction

The history of the Belgian nation is little known

in England. This ignorance, or rather this neglect,

may seem strange if we consider the frequent

relations which existed between the two countries

from the early Middle Ages. It is, however, easy

enough to explain, and even to justify. The

general idea has been for a long time that the

existence of Belgium, as a nation, dated from

its independence, and that previous to 1830 such

a thing as Belgian history did not even exist

AH through feudal times we are aware of the

existence of the County of Flanders, of the

Duchy of Brabant, and of many other principalities,

but, in no official act, does the term "Belgique"

occur. Even after the unification of the fifteenth

century, when the country came under the rule

of the Dukes of Burgundy, the notion of a distinct

nationality, such as the French or the British,

remains hidden to the superficial student, the

Netherlands forming merely a part of the rich

possessions of the most powerful vassals of France.

Through modem times the Belgian provinces, '^les

provinces belgiques" as they were called in the

eighteenth century, pass under the rule of the kings

of Spain, of the emperors of Austria and of the

French Republic, to be finally merged, after the hll of Napoleon, into the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The word '* Belgium," as a noun, is only found in a few books; ^'belgique" is a mere adjective applied to the southern portion of the Netherlands.

It must be admitted that the Belgian official historians of the old school did very little to dispel this wrong impression. In their patriotic zeal they endeavoured to picture Belgium as struggling valiantly all the time against foreign oppression. They laid great stress on Caesar's words : " Of all the Gauls the Belgians are the bravest," and pictured the popular risings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the same light as the 1830 revolution. If we are to believe them, the Belgian people must have been conscious from their origin of their unity. They considered national princes, such as the Burgundian Dukes, in the same light as Philip II or the Austrian Emperors, and, instead of clearing the air, added to the confusion. Their interpretation of history according to the principles of national liberty of the Romantic period could not be taken seriously, and the idea prevailed that, if the Belgian nation was not merely a creation of European diplomacy, its existence could only be confirmed by the future, and rested on but frail foundations in the past

This idea was strengthened by the knowledge that the country possessed neither strong natural frontiers, like Great Britain, France, Italy or Spain, nor the bond created by unity of language like Germany. Other European countries, it is true, like Holland or Poland, did not constitute strong geographical units and lacked definite boundaries,

INTRODUCTION IJ

but their people talked at least the same idiom and belonged, as far as the word may be used in a broad sense, to the same race. Others, like Switzerland, were divided between various languages, but possessed geographical unity. Belgium could not claim any of these distinctive features. Her boundaries remained widely open in all directions. From the cultivated plains of Flanders to the wild hills of the Ardennes she offered the greatest variety of physical aspects. What is more, her people were nearly equally divided, by a line running from the south of Ypres to the north of Li^ge, between two different languages, two different races. According to recognized standards, the very existence of the Belgian nation was a paradox, and though the history of mankind presents many similar contrasts between the hasty conclusions of the untrained mind and the tangible reality of facts, these cannot be recognized at first, and require a deeper knowledge of the pat^ than that which can be provided by the study of warlike conflicts and political changes.

It was therefore left to the modem school of Belgian historians, and more especially to Professor Ptrenne, of Ghent, to place the study of the origin of the Belgian nation in its right perspective and to show that, in spite of diversity of race and language, lack of natural boundaries and centuries of foreign domination, Belgian unity was based on deep-rooted traditions and possessed strong characteristics in every department of human activity which could be recognized from the early Middle Ages to the modem period. By a close study of the economic and intellectual life of the people and of their institutions, Pirenne and his disciples made evident what every artist, every writer had already realized, that, in spite of all appearances, Belgian unity had never been impaired in the past by the language barrier, and that both parts of the country presented common characteristics, common customs, and common institutions which no foreign rule was able to eradicate. They showed furthermore that these characteristics, determined by the common interests and aspirations of the whole people, were so strong that they inspired the policy of many foreign princes who, by their birth, would naturally have been led to disregard them. They may still be found in the country's old charters, in ancient chronicles, in the works of the so-called Flemish School of painting, and in t^ttxy monument of the past which has survived the devastation of war. To these witnesses Belgian historians will not appeal in vain, when they endeavour to show that the origins of Belgian national unity may be sought as far back as those of any other nation in Europe, and that if more exposed than her powerful neighbours to the vicissitudes of war, Belgium always succeeded in preserving, throughout her darkest days, some living token of her former prosperity and of her future independence.

If, as we trust, the reader is convinced after reading this short sketch of Belgium's history that Belgian nationality is more than a vain word, and that the attitude adopted by the Belgian people in August 1914, far from being an impulsive movement, was merely the result of the slow and prc^essive development of their national feeling throughout the ages, he will also realize that this development has received many checks, and is therefore very different from that which may be traced in the history of England, for instance, or even in that of France. Nowhere would the familiar image of the growing tree be more misleading. Belgian history possesses some remarkable landmarks, under Charlemagne, for instance, at the time of the Communes, under the rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, under Charles V, and during the recent period of independence. But, between these periods of prosperity and even splendour, we notice some periods of stagnation due to internal strife or even complete decadence, when the country became a prey to foreign invasion. Few peoples have ex* perienced such severe trials, few have shown such extraordinary power of recovery. Peace and a wise government coincide invariably with an extraordinary material and intellectual efflorescence, war and oppression with the partial or total loss of the progress realized a few years before, so that the arts and trades of Belgian cities which shine at one time in the forefront of European civilization seem totally forgotten at another. In more than one way Belgium has lived under a troubled sky, where heavy showers succeed bright sunshine, while the towers of Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Louvain and Brussels appear and disappear on the horizon.

How can we explain the tragedy of these abrupt changes ? How can we justify these sudden alternations in the life of a hard-working and peaceloving people who never indulged in any dreams of imperialism and foreign conquest?

A look at the map will help us to solve the mystery. The plain of northern Europe may be divided into two wide areas, the French plain, irfiose waters run from East to West into the Atlantic, and the German plain, whose waters run from South to North into the North Sea and the Baltia These wide expanses are connected by a narrow strip of territory through which all communications skirting the hills and mountains of the South must necessarily be concentrated, and whose waters follow a north-westerly direction towards the Straits of Dover. This small plain, only 90 miles wide from Ostend to Namur, constitutes a natural link between Germany and France, and plays, from the continental point of view, the same part as the Straits, on its northern coast. Even to-day, in spite of the progress of railway communications, the main line from Paris to Berlin passes aloi% the Sambre and Meuse valleys, through Namur, Li^ and Aix* la-Chapelle, and the events of August 1914 are only the last example of the frequent use made of this road throughout history, by invaders coming from the East or from the South. For peaceful and warlike intercourse, Belgium is situated on the natural highway connecting the French and German plains. This geographical feature alone would suffice to influence the historical development of the country. But there is another.

It so happens that by an extraordinary arrangement of the map, which one may be tempted to call a coincidence, tiie sea straits are placed in close proximity to the continental narrows, so that the natural route from Great Britain to central Europe crosses in Belgium the natural route from France to Germany. This appears all the more clearly if we take into consideration the fact that the seventeen provinces extended in the past from the Zuyder Z&t to the Somme, and that BrugeSi and later on Antwerp, benefited lai^ely from the trade of the Thames. This then is what is meant when Belgium is spoken of as being placed at ** the cross-roads of Europe.*' Most of the continental communications between Great Britain and Germany or Italy, on the one hand, or between France and Germany on the other, were bound to pass through her provinces. She was, and is still to a certain extent, the predestined meeting-ground of Britbh, French and German culture, the market-place where merchandise and ideas from the North, the West, the East and the South may be most conveniently exchanged, and she derives her originality from the very variety of the influences which surround her. The division of languages and races helped her in her task, and, instead of proving an obstacle to national development, contributed to it whenever circumstances proved favourable. The original contribution of the people to this development may be somewhat difficult to define, but the result is no less evident Belgian, or as it is sometimes called, Flemish culture, though intimately connected with France and Germany, is neither French nor German, still l^ss English. Its characteristics ar^ d^ved froq)

the combination of various European influences strongly moulded by long-standing traditions and habits. ^ The will to live tc^ether " which, according to Renan, is at the root of every nationality, and proves stronger than unity of race and language, finds nowhere a better illustration than in the strange part pla)red by the Belgian nation in the history of Europe. Common interests, common dangers, common aspirations produced and maintained a distinct civilization which, according to all the laws of materialistic Ic^c, ought to have been wrecked and swamped long ago by the overwhelming influences to which it was subjected.

As early as the ninth century, under the rule of Charlemagne, these characteristics bq^ to show themselves. The Emperor chose Aix-la-Chapelle for his capital, not only because he possessed vast domains in the region, but also because, from this central position, he was better able to keep in contact with the governors of a vast Empire which extended from the Elbe to Spain and Italy. Aix-la-Chapelle, ^the Northern Rome," became the metropolis of commerce as well as the political capital. The various intellectual centres created in the neighbourhood, at the monasteries of Li^ge, Tongres, and Maesyck attracted English, Irish, French and Italian poets, musicians, lawyers and theologians.

Later, in the twelfth century, when the free Communes developed all over Western Europe and succeeded in breaking the power of feudalism, it was left to Ghent and Bruges to raise the free city to a standard of independence and prosperity which it did not attain in other countries, placed under a stronger central power. In the shadow of their proud belfries over 80,000 merchants and artisans pursued their active trade, and Bruges, " the Venice of the North," became the principal port of Europe and the centre of banking activity.

The part played by the Burgundian Dukes in European politics during the Hundred Years' War is well known in this country, but the importance of their action in unifying the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands is not sufficiently realized. In fact, in spite of their foreign origin, their policy was so much inspired by the interest of the country that they may be considered as national princes. The "Great Dukes of the West" did for Belgium, in the fifteenth century, what Louis XI did for France, and what Henry VIII did for England, half a century later. They succeeded in centralizing public institutions and in suppressing, to a great extent, local jealousies and internal strife which weakened the nation and wasted her resources. Under their rule the Belgian provinces rose to an unequalled intellectual and artistic splendour and gave to the world, by the paintings of the brothers Van Eyck and their school, one of the most brilliant expressions of the early Renaissance.

This prominent situation was maintained, in spite of the fall of the Burgundian dynasty, when, through the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with Maximilian, Belgium passed under the sway of the Hapsburg dynasty. Under Charles V, Antwerp inherited the prosperity of Bruges, and became the principal centre of European commerce. It was visited every year by 2,500 ships, and the amount of commercial transactions made through its exchange was valued at forty million ducats per year.

Even after the disastrous wars of religion which separated the Northern Netherlands, or United Provinces, from the southern provinces, and ruined for two centuries the port of Antwerp, there was a short respite, under the wise rule of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (i 598-1633), during which the art of Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens threw a last glamour on Belgium's falling greatness.

This rapid sketch of the happy periods of Belgian history would not be complete if we did not allude to the wonderful recovery made by the country as soon as the Powers granted her the right to live as an independent State after the unhappy experiment of the joint Kingdom of the Netherlands (181 5-1830). Her population increased twofold. The Scheldt was reopened and Antwerp r^ained most of its previous trade. At the time of the German invasion modem Belgium occupied the first rank in Europe with regard to the density of her population, the yield of her fields per acre, the development of her railway system and the importance of her special trade per head of inhabit tants. In spite of her small area, she occupied the fifth rank among the great trading nations of the world, and the names of Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, C^sar Franck and Meunier show that she had reconquered a great part of her former intellectual prestige.

There is one striking resemblance between all periods of Belgian development Whether in the ninth, the thirteenth, the fifteenth or the nineteenth century, they express the civilization of the time, and succeed in producing a typical example of essentially European culture, imperial under Charlemagne, communal in the Middle Ages, centralized under national princes during the Renaissance, highly industrialized and colonial in modem times. This trait must be considered when Belgium is represented as the '* kernel of Europe," as combining the spirit of the North, East and South. It is not enough to say that the country seems predestined to this task by her geographical position and her duality of race and language bringing together the so-called ** Germanic " and "Latin" tendencies; it must be added that, whenever historical circumstances allowed it, the people made full use of such advantages. Whether under local princes, or under foreign princes who understood Belgian interests, given peace conditions at home and abroad, the country never failed to rise to the occasion.

But these periods of greatness were short-lived compared with the periods of decadence which succeeded them. After the division of the Empire of Charlemagne the Belgian counties and duchies found themselves plunged in the throes of feudal disputes and divided between the Kings of France and the Emperors of Germany. The power of the suzerain was nowhere weaker than in these distant marches, and the Belgian princes were left free to pursue their quarrels with complete disregard of the common interest The prosperity of the Communes in the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries, was rapidly undermined by internal strife and by the difficulties the Counts of Flanders experienced in trying to conciliate their duty to their French suzerain with the interest of the people which prompted an English alliance. The fall of Charles the Bold provoked a fresh outburst of the spirit of local independence, which greatly endangered the country's peace, and, if the situation was restored, under Philip the Fair and Charles V, during the first part of the sixteenth century, the second part of this century witnessed the gradual exhaustion of the Southern Netherlands divided against themselves and subjected to the attacks of both Spanish and Dutch.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which are for other countries, like France, a period of exceptional national prestige, mark the deepest stage of Belgian decadence and humiliation. The Scheldt was closed, trade and industry were practically dead, foreign troops, French, Dutch, Spanish or Austrian, ceaselessly pursued their work of devastation. A foreign possession, open to the incursions of her possessors' enemies, sacrificed by her masters at every stage of the peace negotiations in order to save their native country, Belgium lost Dutch Flanders, Northern Brabant and part of Limburg to Holland, French Flanders, Franche Comt^ and Artois to France. The Treaty of Munster sealed the fate of Antwerp, and the Treaty of the Barriers left the Dutch in possession of all the country's most important fortified positions.

Though it gave back to Belgium her natural frontier in the North and reopened the Scheldt for a short time, the French regime did not greatly improve the economic situation. After the union with Holland (1815), the political struggle which followed prevented the people from enjoying the full benefit of the change, so that we must wait until 1830 before being able to notice any considerable improvement.

This general survey will suffice to show that Belgian history may be divided into periods of progress and decadence. The same may be said, it is true, of the history of all nations. But nowhere else is the difference between the higher and lower levels so pronounced and the intervals between the acts so protracted. As we have already said, the country passes suddenly from the brightest limelight of fame to the darkest recess of mediocrity and oblivion. Some of these contrasts, such as those existing between Charlemagne's united Empire and feudal divisions, are shared by the rest of Europe. Others, at the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and when the country came under Spanish, Austrian and French rule, are peculiar to Belgium. To the slow development of national unity, her history adds the obstacles of foreign domination and foreign invasion. The exceptional situation of the country on the map gives equally great chances of ruin and recovery. The same conditions which bring about Belgium's downfall contribute largely to her restoration, the same roads which bring wealth in time of peace, are followed, in time

28 BBLGfUM

of war, by foreign armies. She is not only the cross-roads of Europe, she is the battlefield of Europe. From Bouvines (12 14) to Waterloo and Ypres, almost all the great battles which decided the fate of Europe and determined her balance of power were fought on Belgian soil. Sometimes the inhabitants took a share in the struggle, oftener they were not even given the chance to interfere, while the Powers settled other quarrels at their expense.

The Belgian people have acquired a remarkable reputation for their sturdiness and their power of recovery. But, while they are entirely irresponsible for their weakness, which can only be attributed to the small size and the defenceless character of their country, they cannot be considered as entirely responsible for their strength. A port like Antwerp, if at all accessible, is bound to prosper under any circumstances, A town like Brussels cannot fail to benefit by its unique situation, from an international point of view. With her rich coal mines among her fertile fields, Belgium, considering her size, is perhaps more richly endowed by Nature than any other country in Europe. But such exceptional advantages have been more than compensated in the past by the heavy risks which this richness implied